Easy does it: France’s Desire Doue celebrating after scoring the second goal against New Zealand during the Group A match. — AFP
FRANCE set up a potentially explosive quarter-final showdown with Argentina in the men’s Olympic football tournament after beating New Zealand 3-0 in their final group game.
Argentina had sealed their last-eight spot earlier in the day and France joined them in the knockout phase with Jean-Philippe Mateta, Desire Doue and Arnaud Kalimuendo scoring for the hosts against New Zealand in Marseille.
France finish on top of Group A with three wins out of three and no goals conceded, with the United States going through as runners-up after seeing off Guinea 3-0, Kevin Paredes scoring twice.
That means Thierry Henry’s French side will take on Argentina in Bordeaux tomorrow after the South Americans, two-time gold medallists, went through in second place in Group B thanks to a 2-0 win over Ukraine in Lyon.
Thiago Almada’s superb strike gave Argentina the lead just after half-time and substitute Claudio Echeverri sealed their victory late on.
It will be the first meeting of the nations since Argentina players were recorded singing racist chants about French players as they celebrated winning the Copa America earlier this month.
FIFA have announced an investigation into the chants, which targeted France’s star striker Kylian Mbappe among others and included racist and homophobic insults.
Argentina players have already been booed by rival fans at the Olympic tournament.
The nations last met in the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar which Argentina won on penalties after a 3-3 draw.
However, the men’s Olympic football tournament is an under-23 competition, with the exception of up to three over-age players per squad. Only two members of Argentina’s Olympic squad, Nicolas Otamendi and Julian Alvarez, played in the 2022 game, and none of France’s.
Argentina will only face France after missing out on first place in Group B to Morocco on head to head.
Morocco beat Iraq 3-0 in Nice in their last group game thanks to goals by Amir Richardson – the son of former NBA star Michael Ray Richardson – Soufiane Rahimi’s fourth of the tournament and a stunning hit from Abde Ezzalzouli, all in the first half.Morocco and Argentina finished level on six points, and tied on goals scored and goals conceded, but Morocco won 2-1 when the sides met in their opening game.
That was only because a last-gasp equaliser for the South Americans was disallowed after a VAR review before the final minutes of the game were completed in an empty stadium following crowd trouble.
Morocco will play their quarter-final tie on Friday in Paris against the US.
Earlier, Egypt reached the quarter-finals with a surprise 2-1 win over already-qualified Spain, with Ibrahim Adel scoring both goals. — AFP
